NORRISTOWN — A Hatfield man accused of fatally stabbing his wife is seeking the return of funds, which he claims were seized by authorities, so he can pay for his defense.

In a petition filed in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday, Walid Mitwalli asked a judge to order authorities to return to him $45,000 that he alleged a friend had been holding for him in a safe deposit box in a local bank and which was seized by authorities during the murder investigation. Mitwalli, through Philadelphia lawyer Hercules Pappas, claimed he is “desperately in need of counsel” as his Aug. 1 preliminary hearing before District Judge Kenneth Deatelhauser is quickly approaching and that he has no other funds to use to secure a lawyer.

“The funds which were believed to be seized have nothing to do with the crimes with which (Mitwalli) has been charged and have not been secured through any criminal activity, nor has the commonwealth alleged that they have,” Pappas wrote in the court petition. “The funds in question were (Mitwalli’s) personal funds which had been saved as a result of his employment.”

“If the funds are not released immediately, (Mitwalli) will be unable to pay private counsel whom he has already engaged,” Pappas wrote in court documents.

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Pappas argued that prosecutors have “no legitimate interest or purpose” in retaining the funds and that Mitwalli would be “severely and irreparably harmed and prejudiced” if the funds are not released to him.

A judge has not yet scheduled a hearing on the request. Prosecutors will have the opportunity to address the matter at that hearing.

Mitwalli, 36, is accused of stabbing to death his wife, 30-year-old Mona Mitwalli, inside their home in the 2900 block of Denbeigh Drive during the early morning hours of June 7 while the couple’s twin 5-year-old daughters slept upstairs. Hatfield police responded to the home after Mitwalli called 9-1-1 around 3:30 a.m. and stated that he had stabbed his wife to death after she attacked him with a knife, according to court documents.

Mitwalli, who is charged with first-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime and related offenses, remains in the county jail without bail while awaiting his preliminary hearing.

Police alleged they found Mona Mitwalli’s lifeless body lying in a pool of blood in the family room, a 14-inch kitchen carving knife on the floor next to her.

Autopsy results detailed in the police criminal complaint indicate the victim suffered more than a dozen stab wounds to her chest, her back, the back of her head and to her throat, which perforated her trachea. She also sustained defensive injuries to both arms and hands, according to authorities.

Court documents show that Mitwalli filed for divorce from his wife on April 9.

On April 11, according to the affidavit of probable cause, Mitwalli met with his in-laws at a New Jersey hotel and showed them surveillance pictures, GPS coordinates and other records on his computer, telling them he had been tracking his wife’s “every move” and had set up recording devices in the house and in her car to prove that she was cheating on him.

Later on April 11, the affidavit alleged, Mitwalli tried to have his wife involuntarily committed to a Montgomery County mental health facility, telling a caseworker that his wife had asked him “to kill her with a knife” after she had been served with divorce papers two days earlier.

However, following a psychological evaluation a doctor at the facility determined that she was “not in need of emergency treatment, nor was she suicidal, but involved in a domestic dispute,” and she was discharged that same night, according to court records.

On April 12, court records indicate, Mitwalli applied for and was granted a temporary Protection From Abuse order against his wife in county court, although a judge dismissed the PFA on April 18.

Following that PFA hearing, according to the affidavit, Mona Mitwalli told her nanny that her husband had texted her, telling her that “he did all these things (to her) to get back at her for her cheating.”

Follow Carl Hessler Jr. on Twitter @MontcoCourtNews

The following is an earlier version of this story.

NORRISTOWN – A Hatfield man awaiting trial for allegedly fatally stabbing his wife is seeking the return of funds seized by authorities so he can pay for his defense.

In a petition filed in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday, Walid Mitwalli asked a judge to force authorities to return to him $45,000 that Mitwalli alleged a friend had been holding for him in a safe deposit box in a local bank and which was seized by authorities during the murder investigation. Mitwalli, through Philadelphia lawyer Hercules Pappas, claimed he is “desperately in need of counsel” as his Aug. 1 preliminary hearing is quickly approaching and that he has no other funds to use to secure a lawyer.

“The funds which were believed to be seized have nothing to do with the crimes with which (Mitwalli) has been charged and have not been secured through any criminal activity, nor has the commonwealth alleged that they have been,” Pappas wrote in the court petition. “The funds in question were (Mitwalli’s) personal funds which had been saved as a result of his employment.”

Mitwalli, 36, is accused of stabbing to death his wife, 30-year-old Mona Mitwalli, inside their Hatfield home in the early morning hours of June 7 while the couple’s twin 5-year-old daughters slept upstairs.